Forget MFT, MS, BB, and QNX--Hack your car to FB and 7 ways from Sunday

[Perry]

Wired is reporting that an outfit called Automatic wants to help us hack our cars in all kinds of ways.

They claim that by plugging a small device into the OBD2 port and coordinating with a company called IFTTT, one can hack one's car to, say, turn on the porch lights when you turn in the drive. Or maybe open the garage door without ever touching a button in the car, all because you passed through a geofence telling your house you're home. Do you want to send a text to your wife when you leave work/the bar/your girlfriend's house? It can do that. Do you want to send a text to your boss when you're stuck in traffic? Can do that, too. It can let you know your gas mileage. It can post your location and average speed to FB. This is intriguing.

[Wait, . . . what's this on the bottom? "NSA ID number 47-3B-17985", "Made in China". Maybe both the Reds and the Feds will know, too?]

 

[rodmoe]

WOW I am going to need a router of some sort for my OBD port with my COBB AP my GoPoint1 BT and now this plugged in I wont have any footroom left for my dead pedal...

 

[Perry]

WOW I am going to need a router of some sort for my OBD port with my COBB AP my GoPoint1 BT and now this plugged in I wont have any footroom left for my dead pedal...

Which makes the whole thing kinda beg the question of why more of the information and potential isn't tapped by things like MFT, etc. If this outfit can do it, why can't Microsoft figure out how to get it done through SYNC? And we know they could display the boost numbers, etc. on the screen should they have wished to do so. Seems to be a lot of don't-wanna-bother going on.

 

[rodmoe]

Which makes the whole thing kinda beg the question of why more of the information and potential isn't tapped by things like MFT, etc. If this outfit can do it, why can't Microsoft figure out how to get it done through SYNC? And we know they could display the boost numbers, etc. on the screen should they have wished to do so. Seems to be a lot of don't-wanna-bother going on.

Agreed

 

[Ronbo]

Which makes the whole thing kinda beg the question of why more of the information and potential isn't tapped by things like MFT, etc. If this outfit can do it, why can't Microsoft figure out how to get it done through SYNC? And we know they could display the boost numbers, etc. on the screen should they have wished to do so. Seems to be a lot of don't-wanna-bother going on.

I'm sure MS could have done it. I'd wager that the contract written by Ford included exactly what was delivered, and boost or any other information was not part of the specification for the FiST MFT.

 

[Perry]

I'm sure MS could have done it. I'd wager that the contract written by Ford included exactly what was delivered, and boost or any other information was not part of the specification for the FiST MFT.

And the reasons for same, I believe, were results of calculations made not entirely with the customer in mind. Just as a for-instance, the ability of the Automatic device to garner DTCs and tell the driver/owner what the code means, and in some cases even how to address the problem, as well as reset the check-engine light, reduces the number of vehicle owners that will willingly succumb to charges of $80-100 or more just to "pull the codes". There's no doubt dealers would've balked mightily at that, I'm sure.